A Nations Theatre Festival is a two-month celebration of theatre from around the UK from April – May 2016. Venues across London are joining forces to shine a light on shows made by artists based in villages, towns and cities with wildly different backdrops and personalities that colour the work they make.

As well as loads of great shows (we saw Little Bulb’s Wail at Battersea Arts Centre the other week and loved it – go go go), the festival involves a series of live debates and The Brick Box have been asked to join in.

We will be hosting a conversation with Lyn Gardner at Leicester’s Curve Theatre on 15th May. We’ll be asking: what does theatre mean to you? What does theatre mean to Leicester? What does theatre mean to the nation?

We love to devise playful, theatrical spaces that encourage people to develop ideas, express themselves and create. So for this mission our approach will be to host and support a communal conversation that responds to the questions. Inspired by our many adventures around the UK producing performances with people from all walks of life, we will share a kaleidoscope of activities, all designed to discover and document the views of the people.

Through the medium of Pass the Parcel, a ‘Disco Demo’ and some inspired badge making, we will host all of the necessary (and bound to be intriguing) conversations. There will be plenty of opportunity for folk to have their say. People can be big and bold by joining the Demo and making their own glittering placard. They can be subtle and pin their opinion on a handy lapel. Or they can wrap it up in a parcel and join us with a rendition of the Okey Cokey. After all, that may be what it is all about…

If you would like to join the debate you can do any combination of these things:

1) Come to the UEL Emergence Festival in West Ham on 7th May where we will officially begin our Theatre Debate Disco Demo. Say it loud, say it proud, just make sure you say it with glitter!

2) Tweet us @thebrickbox using #anationstheatre

3) Turn up in Leicester on Sunday 15th May – more about the event here